constellations #103: five songs (again)
the second edition of my January zine tradition
Hi again.
Last year, around this time, I decided to make a zine called Five Songs about songs I love and the very specific memories they evoke for me. The essays within that zine were about friendship and hallucinations and grad school and depression and bad jobs and ugly-but-beloved apartments and trying to impress crushes and taking the bus through Lower Allston, and even more so about the songs that accompanied me alongside all those experiences. It was a short zine, made in a quick burst of enthusiasm and recklessness; I liked the challenge of starting the year with a small and impulsive creative project.
This year I wanted to do something like that again, only I wanted to make it alongside other people. So I asked four writers I admire — Madeline Zappala, Elle Mannion,
, and Arielle Gordon — to each write a short essay about a song and a memory. Now, I humbly present to you the second edition in the series: Five Songs (Again).The deal is the same as last time: If you’d like to read the zine, it will cost $2 for a digital version; for $5, I will send a physical copy to you in the mail. This basically covers the cost of printer ink & shipping (& paying the contributors!) — but really, the money is (as I said last time) “symbolic of a good-faith investment we are making in each other,” since each of these writers is sharing some personal and intimate writing with you.
I’m really proud of this zine and the wonderful writing within it. Without giving too much away, in this zine, you’ll find stories about: long drives, telenovelas, good-bad dreams, suburbia, redwood trees, intercultural communication, heartbreak, fidget spinners, and young love. And more! If you’re receiving this as a newsletter, you can just reply to the email to place an order. If you’re reading this on the web, leave a comment below or email keeperzines at gmail dot com. Thanks; I hope you love it.
Here are some other things I have been consuming lately: Mood Machine, Liz Pelly’s new book about the rise of Spotify and its effect on our listening habits; The Anthropologists by Ayşegül Savaş; People Collide by Isle McElroy; an essay Carola Dibbell wrote in the Village Voice in 1983 about (in)fertility; new Bad Bunny; new Lucy Dacus; new Japanese Breakfast; new Perfume Genius; Krill live at Alphaville, one of the best shows I’ve seen in a long time; Babygirl; a stand-up show where a male comedian did several sort-of-ironic minutes on how feminism has sort of gone too far (haven’t stopped thinking about it … really felt, to me, like a sign of the times!); endless love and affection from an angelic tiny dog whom M & I were babysitting; so many clementines
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This time last year I was: making the first edition of this zine, of course; and before that: holding my grudges; reading about freedom; writing thank-you notes; and gossiping
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Thanks for reading, as always. See you next twenty-fourth.
xo,
M